Sununu retreats on claim that Powell's endorsement of Obama was race-driven

Former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, a co-chair of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, said in an interview Thursday night that retired Gen. Colin Powell's decision to endorse President Barack Obama's re-election bid appeared to have been driven by race.

However, Sununu later seemed to reverse himself.

"Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder if that's an endorsement based on issues, or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama?" Sununu said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

"What reason would that be?" a somewhat-perplexed sounding Morgan replied.

"Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," Sununu said.

A few hours after the CNN interview, Sununu issued a statement appearing to back away from the comment.

"Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president’s policies. Piers Morgan’s question was whether Colin Powell should leave the party, and I don’t think he should," Sununu said.

Powell, who like Obama is African American, made no mention of the president's race in announcing the endorsement on Thursday. Appearing on "CBS This Morning," Powell credited Obama with reversing the country's abrupt economic downturn and expressed general approval of the president's policies on issues ranging from national security to climate change to health care reform.

“I think, generally, we’ve come out of the [economic] dive and we’re starting to gain altitude,” said Powell, who served as George W. Bush’s secretary of state. “It doesn’t mean all our problems are solved....But I see that we are starting to rise up."

"I also saw the president get us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war, and did not get us into any new wars," Powell added. "The actions that he has taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid."

Powell also suggested that the tax cuts Romney has touted could not be offset by reductions in spending.

In the CBS interview, Powell did express personal loyalty towards Obama. "I signed on for a long patrol with President Obama and I don't think this is the time to make such a sudden change," the retired general said.

Powell also accused Romney of changing his foreign policy positions in recent months. "This is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign," Powell said. "Sometimes, I don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have."

"I think there are some very, very strong neoconservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with," Powell said.

Sununu, a regular surrogate for Romney's campaign, has made several provocative comments in recent months.

"I wish this president would learn how to be an American," Sununu said during a Romney campaign-organized conference call in July. He later apologized for the remark.

In an interview earlier this month, after the first presidential debate, Sununu called Obama "lazy and detached." The statement prompted MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell to suggest that Sununu might want to take his comments back, but the former White House chief of staff more or less repeated the statement. "He didn't want to prepare for this debate. He's lazy and disengaged," Sununu said.

Sununu served as governor of New Hampshire for about six years in the 1980s and was President George H.W. Bush's first chief of staff.

UPDATE (Friday, 12:33 A.M.): This post has been updated with Sununu's statement seeking to clarify his remarks about Powell.